Smokers (BBQ - not grilling)

[Knifemaker]

Well, came out fine. Tossed some thyme on it before putting them in the smoker.
Very simple dinner, some onion rings on the side.

 

[biknflyfisher]

Hello!
Going to firing up the OK Joe tomorrow as the kids/grandkids are coming over for the Memorial Day Holiday.
Planning on doing 2 racks of pork ribs (using Meathead’s Memphis Dust); 2 Tri Tips (1 with Montreal Rub, 1 with Triple S Seasoning for a grandson who can’t have garlic), and maybe some chicken breasts too.
Going to be a fun day being outside tending the fire and enjoying mid-80 degree Central Cal weather.
By the way, much love to ALL that have served in the various branches of the military.
Biknflyfisher

 

[biknflyfisher]

Must be too hot for peeps to be out smoking…..
I ran the smoker 2 weeks ago to bring the meat along camping.

 

[Bounce]

100-108 for the past couple of weeks seems to confirm your assumption. LOL

 

[Knifemaker]

Not horribly hot here today (88°) but humid AF. Not stopping me…..

Picked up a 2.5 lb pork rib eye roast yesterday. Dry brined overnight, and will put it in my pellet smoker in about an hour. This is cut from the middle of the ribs, as opposed to a loin cut which comes from the top. It has a mix of light and “dark” meat, and supposedly has a stronger pork taste than a loin. Using my usual rib rub, and smoking at 225°.
Photos to follow….

 

[Knifemaker]

Came out great. Only took 2 hours to smoke, pulled at 140°. Tasted exactly like a meaty rib. And you know how much I love ribs. Leftover hunk will be sliced thinner for sandwiches. If you like ribs, I recommend trying this cut if you can find it.

 

[Bounce]

Yesterday (Sunday) was the coolest day in a few weeks (and will be so for the next few days at least). At only 98º, we were lucky to have out HVAC fail and find someone to come out within an hour. So maybe 3 hours of outage. As the interior temps climbed from their normal 77º to 91º, he wrapped things up (capacitor and refrigerant) on the 2006 Goodman heat pump. Only $1009.00 (ugh). And be put the hard-sell on me for a new compressor (SWAGging it at about $9-10K for the 5 ton unit) because of the apparent leak (refrigerant). I suspect that it would most likely be leaking from a solder or wear spot somewhere in the lines between the outside and attic units.

So no smoking outside but I was smoking about the unplanned expense on the heels of the planned complete replacement of all ducting and the plenum in the attic.

 

[Knifemaker]

Eight pound pork butt soon to go in the Pit Boss this morning. The elderly woman my wife looks after said she had a hankering for some pulled pork, so I’m happy to oblige.
Will wrap it in butcher paper when it hits the stall and finish in the indoor oven.

More Photos later….

 

[Knifemaker]

So, here’s what I did. Pork went into the 225° smoker at 8:10 am. At 2:30 pm it started to stall at 155°. Wrapped it and put into my convection oven set at 225°. After 60 minutes I did the math and realized it wouldn’t be done until 9-9:30pm. So I bumped the temperature up to 250° until it hit 165°. Then went to 300° until it hit the magic rendering temp of 174°. I then cranked the temp down to 250°. Until it hit 185°, then lowered back down to 225° until it hit my target temperature of 205°. This got it out of the oven around 6:30 pm. Went into my styrofoam cooler for 30 minutes. Then still wrapped, on a baking sheet on the kitchen counter for another 30 minutes.
Cut open the wrap and let it sit a bit, cut the four pieces of twine I tied it with , removed the bone, and broke it up a little bit and let it sit until it was back down to 150°.
Carefully took the wrap and poured the expelled juices into a measuring cup. Had just over two cups.
Used my new pair of meat claws to pull it all apart. Drained the grease from the top of the measuring cup (not a lot had 2 cups left) and poured it over the pork.
Not sure what I did right this time, but was definitely the best pulled pork I’ve done so far, and that includes the butterflied butt I did. Flavor was awesome, tender AF with no dry chewy pieces. Wife agreed, which is a big deal as she usually isn’t a fan of pulled pork.
Half goes to Bert, my wife’s “ward” and the other half is ours.
One note here is I was pretty brutal trimming the butt, I left very little external fat. So, two thumbs up and looking forward to polishing this off.

 

[Fred W]

Looks good. What did you use for wrapping? Did you add any liquid to it when you wrapped it?

 

[Bounce]

Temps dropped from the 100ºs into the upper 90ºs after it rained for 5 minutes yesterday. I've been waiting for the 110ºs to break to hit the smoker but I think I'll wait until after the spike in the next few days.

Keep up the encouragement. Looks super.

 

[Knifemaker]

I originally was going to wrap it with butcher paper, because I though I was out of the big heavy duty aluminum foil, but I found it and that’s what I used. I did not add any liquid.
I didn’t even open the smoker until I took it out. (I usually spritz with apple juice)
I’m thinking it was just a good butt, well marbled yet a bit leaner than my last one.
Got it for $1.88 a pound at Walmart

 

[Knifemaker]

Pepper Jack Cheese Brats over two of my three burners.Roasting sweet potatoes cubes in the oven with onion and thyme in the oven inside.
Using a pack of applewood chips over the unused burner.
Should all be done in 45 minutes.



Found a local butcher shop that makes their own brats. Various flavors….jalapeño, pepper Jack, cheddar, pineapple and brown sugar, and plain. The jalapeño ones are awesome but they ran out before I got there.

 

[Bounce]

We went from 110ºF to mornings of 70sºF (high in the mid-80sº) overnight. Now is the two weeks (of our discontent.. NO! Wait!) of Autumn. Got the window caulking done. Time to unlimber the smoker!

 

[Fred W]

What to do on your birthday? Fire up the offset and smoke a couple of racks of baby backs, of course.



On the pit at 11AM. They should be done around 4PM and I’ll give them a nice long rest before the local fam arrives for dinner. Smoking with old and very dry apple wood from a tree I cut down on our property. I love the smell of an apple wood fire In the fall. I know that it is technically still summer, but it feels like fall here in Vermont.


Edit:

3 1/2 hours in…



Finished goods. Came out nice.

 

[Knifemaker]

Mmmmm… ribs.
Neighbors apple tree got blown down in a storm. Got a good supply of apple wood now

 

[Fred W]

Aight, today is something new. Saw this on Jeremy Yoder’s channel on YooToob. He did it with skinless chicken breasts, but I had skinless Turkey breasts today.

The gist of the process is you get some smoke on them for a good while, then you wrap them with a **** ton of melted butter as a type of confit to finish them.

Went to fire up the Pit Boss vertical to cook them on, but it was a no-go. The combustion blower was recalcitrant and would not get them pellets burning. Switched over to the PitBoss horizontal and pressed on. After the Chooks were cookin’ I tipped the vertical over horizontally and found the bearings on the blower were a bit crusty. Lubed them up with some 3-in-1 and the blower is back in bidness, though too late tonight.

After a couple hours on “smoke” setting, with a flip half way, this what I had:



Nice little bit of color and temp was about 135F. Took em off, wrapped in foil with 1/4 lb of butter. Back on to simmer in the foil and buddah for another hour and a half. No idea if these will be great or ****. If you get no follow up report it was the latter.

 

[Bounce]

Made beef stroganoff yesterday (no pics). Nailed it. Perfect on everything*. I even had seconds.

* As in no need to season it at the table.

 

[Fred W]

Forgot to post the final impressions: Turkey breasts were nice and tender. Not particularly smoky flavored, which was OK with the family. Not impressive enough to me for another photo.

I’ll have to give the technique another try with some boneless skinless chicken breasts sometime.

 

[Fred W]

I know there are some experienced Barbeque guys (and gals) out there. Heretofore I've always been a big fan of consuming it (in unhealthy quantities at times) but I've never before delved into the production side of the hobby.

The past few weeks I've been messing around with an old cheapo charcoal grille and managed to make a few fairly credible attempts at imparting the smoke spice into some meats. I've read a little (enough to be dangerous) and know that this is one of those hobbies (like most others) that you can go "whole hog" on and spend a literal fortune on equipment and supplies. That, I have not done as yet.

As you can see, I am using some pretty low budget (Ok, it's ghetto!) equipment, but I did drill a hole in the lid for a thermometer for monitoring the smoker interior temps and do have a digital cooking thermometer to poke down through the main upper vent into the meat.

First attempt was just some relatively thin pork chops that I smoked for about 2 hours at 225F and just used some dried oak wood chunks that I had out on the firewood pile for the smoke on a whim. The flavor was good but they were a tad dry as I had not done enough to redirect the heat from the meat that time.

Sunday I made a second attempt, this one was a bit more ambitious as I bought a small (4 1/2 lb) brisket. Made up a dry rub and rested it over the prior night in the fridge. And this time I built the charcoal fire towards the back of the grille bottom, and laid some foil across the main cooking rack (that I wasn't otherwise using) to make the heat travel to the front side before wafting around and upwards to the meat, which was perched up high on the "warming rack." I also used some hickory wood chips in lieu of the oak chunks for a finer smoke flavor.

I ended up being able to cook it low and slow, attempted to hold to ~225F, for a bit over 6 hours total while listening to the kickoff of football season, with the first 2-3 hours being the smokiest ones by design. The brisket came out pretty nicely done, the rub turned into a nice bark, and the meat had a great 1/4" smoke ring with real good flavor. (Sorry about the crappy cell phone pics)

But the meat is still a bit tougher than what I'd like. I think I need to do one of a couple of things the next time:

I've read about brining the meat overnight first. Not sure exactly what that adds, but I assume that the brine breaks down some of the collagen and tenderizes the meat before cooking? Anyone practice this witchcraft?

I've also read about hypodermic-ally injecting the meat with stuff (baste), but I would assume that has more to do with flavorizing than tenderizing.

Maybe I need to introduce some steam in the smoke environment? I see where some folks have a dish full of water in their smokers to add moisture throughout the long smoking.

I also realize I need to learn how to cut the meat cross grain, as I tried, but screwed the pooch on that this time. Looks like I need to cut at the 90 degree opposite angle to get that

So, what say ye BBQ gurus?

PS - Before anyone else suggests it, yes I am already shopping for options to replace the frugal Kmart grille, though I really don't think that is a cause of many problems, it will make smoking much more enjoyable as I will have more even temps with less hassle.

Funny. I just received a notification that someone (forum member named Cycle) liked my first post in this thread. It made me read that post from 10 years back, and also to laugh. A lot has changed over those years.

In retrospect I was trying to make BBQ on the cheap. It turned out to be not so cheap, but incredibly involving and oh so rewarding. That first brisket flat was pretty horrible, but luckily I was not deterred. There were better (much better) things ahead.

I’ve been through many iterations of cookers, which is what I started the thread to learn more about. They have all had pros and cons, and most are able to turn out something worthy to eat. But there are definitely small differences to those willing to adapt and adjust.

I spent a long time burning charcoal and wood chips or chunks. Lump and briquettes (which vary by brand) and got a lot of kudos for the que, which kept me going.

Rigged up a gas ring burner with a smoke pan for wood chunks in a COS, which I recognized gave me a purer wood smoke flavor without the charcoal taste.

Then upgraded the thin wall COS to a thicker COS (OK Joe Highland) which got me into stick burning. I made a ton of mods to that little pit, and managed to make a lot of good BBQ, but with a lot of fiddly tending. Very small splits added very often. But learned a lot.

After I retired, we moved up to Vermont from New Hampshire, and that’s when I jumped into the deep end. Bit the bullet and bought an Old Country Brazzos DLX, delivered here for about $1500 as I recall. Of course it needed a few mods too, but having learned so much on the little OK Joe, at least I had an idea what I was shooting for.

Some of my old posts documented my welded mods to put a set of pneumatic wheels and wagon steering system on my DLX. A requirement for me to pull the pit in and out of the garage it is stored in. I took some heat for my amateur welds, but I can say they have held up perfectly fine to this day. That pit is a joy to cook on.

My garage is now cluttered with BBQ junk. I sold the OK Joe with all its mods for a tidy sum. I still have a Weber Kettle (clone), and my original UDS build that the domed lid fits on. Neither have seen light of day in years. I have a Pit Boss Rancher horizontal pellet grille/smoker that gets used now and then. I have a Put Boss vertical pellet smoker that I bought last year that does a great job while I sit inside watching foot ball or avoiding the cold. But the Brazzos DLX is the star player.

I just cooked two 8+ pound pork butts this past Weds. on it following some ideas gathered from others online. Got up at 4AM and smoked them 8 hours, until noon, with applewood, then wrapped them up and shoved them into the electric kitchen oven for another 4 hours. It was the best pulled pork that I’ve ever eaten, never mind made.

10 years later, I’m still learning things. There is always something new to try next time.